Rehab Isn't for Dragons
by prtsrxmyNiceSox
Summary: Two years Post-War, Hermione is a rehabilitation counselor working with inmates released from Azkaban. As a new set of inmates are released, Hermione finds herself cornered into counseling Draco Malfoy at the request of his Mother. Based on a prompt by: Black Rose Blue
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is based off of the following prompt: **Draco is sent to Azkaban for a year or two after the war since he _was_ a Death Eater. Lucius died in Azkaban. Narcissa was never officially a Death Eater though, and was never sent. When Draco is ready to be released, Narcissa asks for person specifically to be his caseworker. Hermione Granger. **Prompt by: ****Black Rose Blue**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize**

xxx

Hermione Granger sat at her desk at the Diagon Alley fRehabilitation Center staring at her calendar. Today was July 25th, 2000, the two year anniversary of the day that 37 Death Eaters were incarcerated in Azkaban for the myriad of crimes against society they had committed. Each Death Eater had been given a fair trial individually, of course, but the Ministry of Magic had organized what was now known as Incarceration Day as a showing of triumph over evil and a step towards global peace.

Hermione saw that day differently, though, since what really happened was a public spectacle caused by Minister Shacklebolt's publicity team. Kingsley didn't need any help with publicity; he was the best Minster for Magic since Millicent Bagnold. Ever since her ten year term, the Minister position had gone swiftly downhill, until now.

Still, having every Death Eater be put into jail on one day meant that those serving terms in years would be coming out at the same time. It was a logistical nightmare for the Ministry, as it was part of the Fair Housing Act of 2001 that every prisoner released from Azkaban had to have appropriate housing available upon their release. In the case of the Death Eaters, that meant the Ministry only had until the Death Eaters was released to finish searching their homes and seizing any dark artifacts found therein. The rush to get houses ready for the Death Eaters meant that Harry and Ron had been overextended at work lately. They both had become aurors after the war, having received commendations from the Ministry for their valor in wartime.

Hermione had received a commendation as well, but hadn't wished to become an auror. Instead, she had interned at St. Mungo's for a few months as a healer, before discovering her true passion was counseling. She supposed it had something to do with the way she was always mediating for harry and Ron through their spats and arguments and full blown fights. She just seemed to have a calming effect on people, and if she didn't have a calming effect, she could effectively calm them with a well placed charm.

Hermione had been working here almost a year now, after taking 6 months of training courses. She had been so happy in that year, dealing mostly with victims of dark magic during the war who still were experiencing lingering effects. She felt like she was doing a lot of good lately, but now it was Incarceration Day, which meant Death eaters would be leaving the island prison of Azkaban and rejoining society. The two year sentences today's releases had served was only half of their punishment. They would also be going through court-appointed counseling and rehabilitation.

Hermione had the distinct displeasure of being one of the counselors required to administer the counseling and rehabilitation for former Death Eaters. She had started after Incarceration Day last year, so she hadn't been stuck with any of those course loads, but this year she had no excuse.

The only silver lining was that the Death Eaters being released today had only served 2 years, meaning their crimes were less severe than others. Still, she hadn't been able to bring herself to look over the list of new case files of the people who would be arriving from Azkaban today. Some of the people weren't specifically Death Eaters, but merely sympathizers, or people who had assisted in some way with the Dark Lord's plot.

Hermione decided to gird her loins and go check the list. She went to the filing room and spotted the black box that contained the files sent over from Azkaban. She sifted through them and saw that only about a dozen people had been released. With 6 senior counselors on staff, Hermione included, that meant each would only have to take on 2 former Death Eaters or sympathizers. That was a relief to Hermione, and she happened to see some former classmates in the mix. Of course they were all Slytherins, the list included Theo Nott, Gregory Goyle, and Blaise Zabini along with Draco Malfoy.

Hermione was surprised Draco was kept in as long as he had been, considering the role his mother played in the defeat of Voldemort. From the look of the list of people released that day, it seemed like most of the students acting on their parent's wishes were all sentence for the same length. She noticed with a smile that Pansy Parkinson was still in Azkaban. She could rot there for all Hermione cared.

Hermione went down the hall to the break room, where she found Ginny Weasley, her very best friend. Ginny dealt mainly with counseling the parents of muggle born witches and wizards, and sometimes worked with the students themselves. Since things like magic are easier for children to believe, the parents often needed a lot more counseling and explanation.

"Good morning, Counselor Weasley," Hermione greeted with faux propriety.

"Make that soon-to-be Counselor Potter!" Ginny squealed, holding up her left hand to show off a beautiful gold engagement ring with a decent sized diamond.

Hermione leaned down to where Ginny was sitting and hugged her friend tightly. "I knew he'd ask soon!" Hermione said, grinning from ear to ear.

Hermione grabbed a cup of hot water and a tea bag and sat down at the table with Ginny. They discussed Harry's proposal which had been at their favorite restaurant in Muggle London. Hermione was enjoying hearing the joy in her friend's voice, when they were interrupted by their boss, Jasmine Alexander.

"Okay, that's enough chit chat ladies, we have new patients today," Jasmine reprimanded snappily. Hermione knew she didn't mean it too harshly though, because her eyes still held a smile. Jasmine and Hermione had become close over the past year, but not overly so. They maintained a professional friendship, but loved the moments when they got to do things like a baby shower for a coworker, or even better, a bachelorette party.

Ginny smiled at Jasmine, and went back to her office. Hermione rinsed out her cup, and was about to follow suit, when Jasmine grabbed her arm to stop her.

"Have you seen the new patient roster?" Jasmine asked.

"Not as of yet, has it been posted?" Hermione asked politely.

"Yes, but I should warn you, you will only be handling one released inmate," Jasmine said smoothly, monitoring her response with the calm calculating eyes of a counseling professional.

"Why not two? I thought there were 12 of them, and 6 senior counselors," Hermione was confused by all accounts.

"You have been requested by one of our benefactors to take on a particular former inmate, who our benefactor feels will best prosper from your particular quality of help," Jasmine replied. It was clear to Hermione that Jasmine was attempting to cushion some sort of blow; she was just waiting for the bomb to drop.

"And who would this benefactor be?' Hermione asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

Jasmine paused a moment, then explained, "Narcissa Malfoy has requested that you be the counselor to rehabilitate her son, Draco Malfoy."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

As much as Hermione tried to protest to Jasmine, and convince her that she could handle more than one patient at a time, Jasmine would not budge. Her only patient for the next 6 months would be Draco frigging Malfoy. On the one hand, she knew Malfoy had a lot of bigotry to get over, and could use her help. On the other hand, he was Draco Malfoy and she hated his guts!

Hermione stormed back to her office, slammed the door and plopped down in her ergonomic desk chair behind her large cherry desk. It wasn't until she looked up that she realized she had company in the office.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, scrambling to sit up and readjust her clothing. "Mrs. Malfoy, my name's Hermione Granger," she said, standing and offering Narcissa her hand.

Narcissa Malfoy grasped Hermione's fingers between her own gloved ones and shook minutely. She looked almost disgusted by the action.

Hermione couldn't believe that Narcissa Malfoy was sitting in her office. It gave her some conflicting feelings; should she be grateful for what she did for Harry in the final battle, or should she detest her for raising the little brat of a kid that made her formative years so painful?

"I do recognize you, dear," Narcissa said quietly. "I apologize for the surprise; I let myself in hoping that you would be here, and instead I had to wait." Her speech was so calm and classy. It made Hermione wish she had been born in another time so that she could express herself like that. Clearly Narcissa was pissed for having to wait, but her lady-like demeanor would not allow her to show it. Instead she put her snipes into words sharpened like daggers. It was almost empowering, in an oppressed womanhood sort of way.

"I apologize for the delay, Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione said kindly. "I was just discussing with my superior about taking on your son's case."

"Jasmine, correct?" Narcissa verified, looking at a notepad in her lap. Hermione nodded, and Narcissa jotted something down. "You must understand, Miss Granger, that I have every hope for my son's well being. I spent many years allowing myself and my son to be bullied and misguided by a terrible man, and now I have to pay the price of his failed upbringing. I will not tolerate my son being considered evil or even bad. I wish for you to do everything you can to rehabilitate my son. That is why I've requested you only handle his case, to avoid any distractions."

Hermione was underwhelmed by Narcissa's passion for her son. It was almost as if having an evil bigoted terror in her family was only negative because it looked badly on her. Maybe Hermione was wrong and it was just due to the way she was speaking.

"I will do my best to help your son, Mrs. Malfoy. In a small place like this, the counselor is normally counselor, rehab specialist, and caseworker. So naturally, I will be the main person your son is working with. Since I went to school with him, I do understand a little bit about him, but I'm afraid we never got a long. I will however do my best to remain professional and do everything in my power to help him."

"Very well," Narcissa said, standing. "I am on my way now to meet my son. Will you be available after lunch for him to meet with you?"

"Of course," Hermione replied smiling slightly. "We'll take care of his intake interview. Will he be staying in the old Manor with you?"

Narcissa shook her head. "Draco never liked it there, and with his father and him gone, I haven't been staying there either. I have been staying with family from Lucius' side, but I have obtained a flat down the street for him to use during the 6 months of his rehabilitation."

"Well, it's good to know that he'll be nearby. That will make things simple if there are any incidents." Hermione smiled kindly and walked Narcissa to the outside door. "Don't worry; we'll take good care of your son, Mrs. Malfoy."

"Yes. Of course, thank you," Narcissa replied, before stepping out into the son. A man in black robes stepped out from the shadows and immediately held an umbrella over Narcissa's head, then led her to a black town car.

Hermione was shocked to see Mrs. Malfoy riding in a car, but she supposed it must have some magical qualities that made it worth her while.

Turning back to her office, Hermione grabbed her purse, made sure her wand was secure in the pocket in her skirt, and headed over to Ginny's office.

"Hey, Gin," she greeted her friend, who was poring over a file folder at her desk. 'Want to go grab lunch with me?"

"Is it 11:30 already?" Ginny said frantically. "I've wasted so much time this morning already."

"That tends to happen when you've got something as important as wedding plans to distract you," Hermione said with a laugh. "Who are you working with?" she asked while Ginny grabbed her bag and secured the files in her locked cabinet.

"I have Blaise Zabini and Gregory Goyle. Ugh," Ginny said with a sigh.

"Yeah, well I have been ordered to only counsel Draco Malfoy. According to Jasmine, he's the _only_ person I get to work with for the next 6 months," Hermione said, pulling a face. "Did you get in touch with Harry and Ron? Can they join us for lunch?"

"Ron's on a raid, but Harry was held back doing paperwork. I think he can come along, but let's pop over to his office and check," Ginny said, finally ready to go. "Shall we?" she asked, before turning on the spot to apparate to the Ministry of Magic.

Hermione followed suit, and arrived at the apparition point within the Ministry of Magic. She saw Ginny being waved down with a wand by security, so she waited behind for her turn. Once they were both cleared to enter, they headed to the elevator, and took it to the aurors' level. Hermione had to follow Ginny carefully, since she hadn't been to Harry's office recently and the aurors were always moving things around to inhibit attacks.

Finally they rounded a corner, and Hermione saw Harry in his office with his feet propped up on the desk.

"Hey baby!" Ginny squealed as she dashed in the room and hopped on Harry's lap.

Laughing, Harry dropped his legs to support her weight and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. "Hey there, my lovely fiancée," he replied, smiling widely.

"Hey, chopped liver over here," Hermione said jokingly.

"Hey Hermione," Harry said, wrapping his arms around Ginny. "I take it you lovely ladies are here to take me to lunch?"

"Yes!" Ginny grinned. "Where should we go?"

"You guys pick somewhere and it's my treat," Hermione said with a smile. "I have to celebrate my favorite couple getting engaged!"

xxx

Hermione, Ginny and Harry were sitting at their favorite café just inside Diagon Alley. It was a beautiful little Parisian place that made sandwiches and desserts. Inside there was only room for the deli cases and a small queue, so the tables were all outside. It was nice to sit out on the sidewalk on beautiful days, but even when the weather was bad Hermione would sometimes have it delivered to work, since the sandwiches were really excellent.

"So, have you told Harry the bad news?" Ginny asked Hermione.

Looking up from her focaccia stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella, Hermione had to take great pains to swallow before asking, "What?"

"About your new case," Ginny said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ginny, I can't talk to Harry about any cases," Hermione replied. "I hope you haven't been!"

"Of course not, I just thought since it involved you-know-whats that the aurors would already be involved," Ginny said in her own way of being discreet.

Harry looked back and forth between the two girls with an odd look. "You two are something else," he said. "This one's super secretive with case files, and this one tells me every little detail about her day." He sighed in mock exasperation.

"Well, the super secretive one has to go poke a sleeping dragon now. And by that I mean-" she lowered her voice to a whisper and bent down close, "_rehabilitate Draco Malfoy._"

Harry jumped back like he'd been punched. "Incarceration Day already? Where did the past week go?" he asked, and Hermione knew he was serious about losing time. She felt that way all the time. Being an adult in the real world was just not as regimented as school had been. It was easy to lose yourself in the days when you didn't have a timetable assigned to you on a weekly basis.

"Yeah, it is. And he's out. And I have to go deal with him," Hermione hissed, then apparated into her office with a crack.

Lounging on the couch in front of her was none other than Draco Malfoy. Honestly, she had to stop walking in on Malfoys in her office. It was getting a little bit ridiculous.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said coolly. "Nice to see you back in society."

"Granger?" he said incredulously. "Damn, you grew up!"

Hermione gave him a small smile, then sat behind her desk and motioned to the chair in front of her, saying, "Please, have a seat, Mr. Malfoy."

Draco stood with a wary look and took a seat in front of her desk. She pulled out her case file and spread it out in front of her.

"So, Mr. Malfoy," Hermione began.

"Draco." He interrupted her. "Call me Draco."

"Okay, if that's more comfortable, then Draco, you were incarcerated in Azkaban for a two year sentence, which ended today. Our goal for the next six months will be getting you back into society as a healthy, well-adjusted and contributing wizard. We'll go about that through a variety of ways. Anything that you think you need to help with your transition will be made available to you, within the best of our abilities. We'll have our sessions twice a week at first, just until we start making some progress, then if things are going well, we'll reduce them to once a week. Especially since one of our goals will be getting you gainfully employed, the reduced sessions will help accommodate your work schedule when the time comes. Do you have any questions so far?"

Draco shook his head, and Hermione noticed how much he'd changed. His eyes were glassy and wild, rimmed with darkness, probably a side effect of a lack of sleep. He seemed thinner and his face was gaunt from poor nutrition. She began to idly wonder if there needed to be prison reforms in regard to nutrition.

Hermione pulled out a form and handed it to Draco. "Before we begin any services, I need you to read this form. There is a list of possible forms of therapy and I need you to initial next to each one you agree to." She pointed to a list on the page that included: individual therapy, group therapy, mood behavioral potions, legilimency, extraction of memories, and obliviation (in extreme cases). He initialed next to everyone but the last. Hermione found this interesting. The form always ended up being an interesting tool in itself, as it gave an insight into how far a person was willing to go. It seemed from this behavior that Draco was serious about rehabilitation, but didn't want to forget his wrongdoings.

Looking back down to her file, she asked him, "When you were at Hogwarts, what track were you on in your last couple years. What were your goals or aspirations for employment?"

"I was good at transfiguration and potions. I guess I would have wanted to be a potion master for a company, or more likely start my own company so I could be potion master and owner," he said, his voice deadpan and factual.

"What kind of potions would you want to make?" Hermione prompted.

He thought about it for a moment, and then when he answered, Hermione thought she saw a little glint in the back of his eye. "I think I'd want to make pharmaceuticals, or maybe cosmetic potions. I just think the area of potions could broaden a lot in terms of helping people. Not enough people depend on potions in their everyday life, mainly because they find it too hard or tedious to make their own brews. I think if there was a company that made these potions more readily available, potions would be a renewed industry."

"Wow," Hermione said, "You seem to have a lot of insight into the field. Why don't you take this week to look into how you would go about starting your own potions company? I'll see you on Friday at 2 o' clock, okay?"

Draco nodded, but seemed to disappear back inside himself, closing himself off. There was a big difference between the Draco before her now and the Draco who had talked so excitedly about revolutionizing the potions industry. He seemed colder. Hermione frowned a little to herself, but showed Draco out.

Draco left without a word.

Back in her office, Hermione looked over the form she'd had Draco fill out earlier. He had his name, address, wait. His address was Avondale Gardens Apartment 107. She lived in Apartment 109. This was going to be a long 6 months.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Hermione's week flew by quickly. Between giddily discussing wedding plans with Ginny and not having any other patients at the moment, before Hermione knew it, it was time for her second session with Draco Malfoy.

She waited in her office after lunch for him to arrive for his session. 2 o' clock came and went with no sign of Draco. Maybe she had given him too much time before sessions just starting out. An hour passed and she still hadn't seen or heard from Draco. Now she was starting to get angry.

Hermione knocked on Jasmine's door and didn't wait for an answer before entering.

"Hermione!" she exclaimed in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"My special little assignment didn't show up for his session today," Hermione said, seething. "What should I do?"

"Did he list a mobile on his intake forms?" Jasmine asked.

"No, he and his family think very lowly of muggle culture and items," she scoffed. "All I have is an address for a flat, and I can't even be sure he's there."

"Well, don't floo there. You don't know what kind of wards he may have up, especially if he's as prejudiced as his family," Jasmine suggested. "Just go and try knocking. Is it nearby?"

Hermione calmed down a little bit, and said, "Yeah, just a few blocks."

"Are you familiar with the area?" Jasmine asked.

"You have no idea," Hermione muttered on her way out the door.

xxx

A few minutes' walk later and Hermione had arrived at her apartment building. She rode the elevator up to the first floor, and strode down the hallway. Just as she suspected, Malfoy's flat was next to hers. She tried to think back, but she didn't even remember anyone moving in, or ever hearing any noises from next door.

She stood in front of his door and rapped on it loudly without hesitation.

There was no answer.

She knocked again, even louder this time.

She thought she heard a sound inside, so she waited a minute, but still no one answered.

She started to consider the possibility that something might be wrong. She had, after all, asked him to figure out how to start a new potions company. Maybe he'd been experimenting and something had gone wrong.

That thought was all the cause Hermione needed to break in. "_Alohomora_" she muttered, tapping the doorknob. She heard the lock snap open, and pushed the door ajar. The room was dark, but it seemed to be a foyer leading into a living space. This flat was laid out almost identically to hers, so Hermione began searching the house, hoping to find him. She was still deadly mad, but also a little worried that he'd blown a limb off.

The living area, kitchenette and bathroom were all empty, leaving only Malfoy's bedroom to be searched. She carefully pushed open the door, and found yet another dark room, flipping on the light switch, she was immediately met with the sight of Draco Malfoy and some girl sprawled out naked under a sheet, which barely covered any offensive body parts.

"Ugh!" yelled Hermione, shielding her eyes. She grabbed the comforter from the floor and tossed it over the pair, trying not to make eye contact with anything she didn't need to see.

The action of the blanket hitting the bed woke up the girl, who looked up like a deer in the headlights. She smacked Draco's sleeping head and screamed, "I didn't know you were married!" She wrapped herself in the sheet and apparated away.

Somewhere between the blow to the head and the crack of apparition, Draco woke up. Looking groggily around, he saw Hermione and growled, "Mudblood! What are you doing in my apartment?"

Hermione gasped, and in that moment her anger came rushing back. "What am I doing in your apartment? What are _you_ doing in your apartment? You have a court-appointed therapy session today, which you are almost two hours _LATE_ for, and you're here rolling around with some trollop? It's almost four in the evening Malfoy, so why don't _you_ tell _ME_ what exactly your problem is?" She was literally seething with rage, but she never expected what happened next.

Draco leapt up from the bed, stark naked and grabbed Hermione by her throat. Holding her up against the wall he growled in her face, "Don't you dare speak to me like that you mudblood bitch. You're not good enough to kiss my feet. Get your dirty blood the hell out of my apartment, and never disgrace it again!" By the end of his rant he was shouting, literally becoming red in the face. Hermione against the wall was turning blue, unable to reach her wand on the floor.

There was a moment suspended in time, where neither of them moved. Well, Hermione didn't have a choice in the matter. Then Draco fell away from Hermione, landing on all fours, panting. The redness drained from his face until he was even paler than normal. Hermione gasped for air, grabbing her neck and struggling to calm her erratic heart.

She looked down at her assailant just in time to watch him pass out, falling on his side. Hermione thanked whatever made her want to be a healer at one point. At least she knew getting used to seeing people naked would come in handy.

This time though, she had none of the urgency of an emergency room healer. She didn't really know what to do in the situation. She decided to call Jasmine.

"Hello?"

"Hey Jasmine, it's Hermione."

"Did you find your no-show?" Jasmine's voice sounded relaxed, if not a little happy. Hermione guess it was because it was almost closing time on a Friday.

"Yeah, I found him, and then he attacked me."

"What?"

"Yeah, he was in bed, naked, and he just jumped at me and tried to choke me to death. Then, he just stopped." Hermione felt even shakier just recounting what had happened.

"And where was your wand in all of this?" Jasmine sounded upset now.

"He knocked it out of my hand. He was really fast."

"That's probably because he was naked." Jasmine sounded matter-of-fact but Hermione could tell she was holding back a giggle.

"This isn't funny Jasmine!"

"Where is he now?"

"Passed out on the floor."

"Still naked?"

"Still naked."

Jasmine was definitely holding back a giggle now, but she came up with a quick plan to help Hermione.

"Okay, Hermione, call the mediwizards, let them know he's your patient and has had a psychotic break. They'll admit him and we can put him on a 48 hour psych hold for observation."

"Okay, I'll call them. Thanks."

Hermione hung up and went out to the fireplace in the living room. Grabbing some floo dust from the pot, she threw it in the fire, and yelled "St. Mungo's Hospital!" into the flames. Once the connection was opened, Hermione pointed her wand at the fireplace and emitted some red sparks. A few seconds later a pair of mediwizards appeared in front of her.

"He's this way," she said, motioning for the men to follow her. She pointed out his body, and said, "He's my patient over at the Rehab facility. He seems to have had a psychotic break. We need to get him admitted so I can put him on a 48 hour psych hold. Then I can find out why this happened."

One of the mediwizards turned to Hermione and said, "Thanks," but then his jaw dropped when he saw her neck. "Are you alright Miss...?"

"It's Hermione, and I'm fine, why?" she asked.

He pointed her to a mirror and she peered at it curiously. There were big black bruises blossoming all over her neck where he'd grabbed her. She gasped in pain as she touched it. This was not good at all.

"You're going to have to come with us and get treated," the handsome mediwizard said. The other mediwizard had wrapped Draco up in some sort of insulated blanket which would help his blood flow as well as cover his shame.

Hermione gratefully went with them through the fireplace to St. Mungo's, where she had to fill out forms both for herself and for Malfoy.

xxx

A pile of paperwork later, Hermione was in with a mediwitch named Nancy. When she was studying, Nancy had been Hermione's partner. Now Nancy was a mediwitch, and Hermione was getting throttled by former Death Eaters. Nancy clearly thought this was hilarious.

"I wouldn't laugh, but you're fine," Nancy said, her eyes dancing. "I just can't believe you gave up working here to rehabilitate Death Eaters."

"Well I didn't choose this assignment," she said wincing as Nancy put pressure against her throat.

"I'm sure you didn't, sweetie. Looks like you have a bruised windpipe, but no lacerations." Nancy held her wand to Hermione's throat, and the tip lit up green. "No damage to your vocal chords either, so you should be fine in a couple days."

"What about him?" she asked, jerking her head to indicate the exam room next door. Nancy jogged lightly out of the room, grabbed Draco's chart and came back. "Hmm… doesn't seem to be under the influence of anything magical, just extremely hung over. I would bet that's why he passed out."

"He looked like the blood just left his face completely. He went from enraged to out in 10 seconds flat," Hermione said curiously.

"I guess you'll just have to ask him what's up," Nancy said evenly. "Looks like they granted you the 48 hour psych hold, so you'll have plenty of time to talk."

Hermione sighed and went to rub her neck, which was her go-to way to express stress. The pain from simply touching her neck was excruciating. She let out a little strangled cry, and Nancy's attention snapped back to her.

"I thought you didn't need pain meds?" Nancy asked, sounding a little angry.

"I don't," Hermione said, but the pain in her voice did not convince Nancy. Nancy stared at Hermione pointedly until she talked. "Okay, okay, I just didn't want it to knock me out and keep me from talking to my patient."

"Well, you won't need to worry about him waking up until morning. Seems like he went on a real bender last night," Nancy pulled a vial from a locked cabinet, and handed it to Hermione. "Now sleep," she said, watching to make sure Hermione took the potion.

Hermione climbed into the bed, took her potion and immediately felt some relief. She got drowsy very quickly, and soon she was sleeping.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It was Harry and Ginny's wedding day. Hermione was all dolled up in her beautiful crimson bridesmaid's gown. Her hair was somehow styled perfectly. For once it wasn't a frizzy mess and it cascaded down her back in perfect waves. In her hand was a bouquet of hydrangeas, all pristine and white. On her arm was a statuesque man with strikingly blonde hair.

She looked at the man on her arm again, and realized it was Malfoy. Somehow this didn't bother her. What did bother her was that she was still at the door to the church, while Harry and Ginny were at the altar, exchanging their vows.

She was late! Hermione tried to run to the front of the church, but Draco pulled her back, holding her arm firmly. She glared at him, but he silently pointed to the floor. It began to fall away beneath her, as if she were trying to run on a set of venetian blinds. The pieces turned parallel, and then fell straight down into the black abyss below.

Hermione looked up at Harry and Ginny at the altar. They weren't even looking at her! She looked back at Draco, then at the hole in the floor. She could make it across, she just knew it! She backed up, and took a running leap and fell directly through the hole.

She landed face down on in the pit, surrounded by dirt and grime. The only light came from the hole above, which seemed miles away. Her dress was tattered to the point that it was falling apart in the back, and her arms were bound behind her.

She didn't know what it was, but there was one corner in the room that scared her immensely. She stared into it, unable to look away from the spot, though her straining eyes failed to see anything.

Then, a figure began to form in the darkness. Crawling on all fours, he was cloaked in black fabric that was torn and ripped. His face was covered with a silvery mask that Hermione knew all too well. It was like a half man – half beast Death Eater. She remembered what Sirius had told her once. "_Fourteen years ago he had huge numbers at his command - not just wizards and witches but all manner of Dark creatures..._" This creature before her scared her more than anything she'd experienced in the war. It was hideously dark.

The creature came very near to Hermione and lifted its mask. Behind the mask was Draco Malfoy's face, though how he could be up there and down here made no sense to Hermione. Draco smiled, and opened his mouth wide to reveal rows upon rows of hideous razor-sharp metallic teeth. Hermione screamed as he brought his gnashing mouth down to her…

And woke up on the hospital floor. She was in a dressing gown, which made her think that Nancy must have sent someone in to change her while she was asleep; very funny indeed. She was all wrapped up in the sheets from her bed, which held her arms close to her body until she managed to get untangled.

She had just about released herself from the clutches of the hideously low thread count sheets when Nancy came in and caught her in the act of escaping.

"Oh, we have a Houdini here, don't we now?" Nancy said, laughing openly at Hermione.

"Oh shut up," Hermione said, scowling. She couldn't stay too mad given the situation though, and ended up smiling in spite of her awkward position. "What the hell did you drug me with, Nance?" Hermione asked, remembering a snippet of her nightmare. "I had the trippiest dreams!"

"It was just a regular pain potion, which causes drowsiness, but it wasn't brewed to put you down completely," Nancy replied with a sideways smile. "Maybe it was the state of mind you were in when you fell asleep? After all, you were attacked by your grade school bully yesterday."

Hermione groaned and sat back down on the bed. She must have been tossing and turning all night, because her neck wasn't the only part of her that was hurting. Her whole body felt like she'd gone ten rounds with a heavyweight. "Maybe, but I still blame the drugs. Can I at least go see my patient now? I assume you have him properly sedated."

"I'm not in charge of his dosage, but…" Nancy peered over the chart she had brought in with her. "Looks like they had him on heavy sedatives, but to get him awake for therapy they're switching him to an antipsychotic instead."

"Well, I guess I'll get dressed and go see him. Is he still next door?" Hermione asked.

"No, they moved him to the psych ward on floor 7," Nancy said, snapping the file shut and placing it on the bedside stand. "This is your copy, in case you need any medical records."

"Thanks," Hermione said as Nancy left to give her some privacy.

A few minutes later Hermione was back in her work clothes and on the elevator to level 7. Like the Ministry of Magic building, St. Mungo's was curious in that the elevator went down instead of up. So technically she was dropping 6 stories to get to level 7, but she tried not to think of it that way. It was all just too confounding, and despite her vivid nightmare, she hadn't slept all that well.

A loud ding made Hermione jump and Hermione stepped out onto an oddly lit floor. Instead of whatever magical sunlight sources they used on the main floors, this one actually used old fluorescent lighting. She assumed the psychologists who worked there tried to make it as similar to a muggle sanatorium as possible, since the muggles seemed to have such luck with rehabilitating their patients. Hermione knew that it wasn't true, and that muggles were just as afraid of the mentally ill as wizards were, but she certainly wasn't going to mention that to any of the psychologists she met. Ti was better for them to have hope than fear.

She arrived at the nurse's station, and checked the file in her hands. They had moved Malfoy to room 712. 'Where can I find room 712?" she asked the nurse on duty.

The nurse pointed to her right down a long hall. 'last one on the left," she said emotionlessly.

"Thank you," Hermione replied, realizing her gratitude would not be returned. She tried not to look into the windows as she made her way down the hall, but many patients caught her eye anyway. She thought about the fact that magical insanity was far worse than the chemical imbalances in the muggle world, and prayed that Malfoy wouldn't turn out to be a lost cause. Sure, she'd love to write him off as crazy, but his mother wouldn't like it very much if she didn't try, and as a main benefactor of the rehab center, Hermione needed to please Mrs. Malfoy, like it or not.

She just didn't understand how Draco could be so docile during their first session, almost as if he lacked any sort of free will, and then in his apartment be so very much his old Death Eater self. It was almost like he had a split personality, which was quite uncommon in the wizarding world. She hadn't heard of a case of multiple personality disorder in the wizarding world in many years, unless you counted Snape's time as a double agent.

Hermione arrived at Draco's room and peered through the small window in the door carefully. He looked calm, or at least sedated. That was a good sign. She rounded up her courage, and unlocked the door from the outside, and then went in. They had him restrained against the bed. She had thought his episode was over when he released her, but she guessed he must have had one the night before for them to restrain him like that.

The straps that held his arms down gave him a little leeway, but the leg straps ensured he would not be leaving the bed. Hermione dragged a white metal chair over to his bedside where she sat to wait for him to awaken.

An hour later, Malfoy still haven't woken up, and Hermione was getting tired of waiting. They must have really had him on some serious sedatives. She got up to go see a nurse, when a small voice from the bed stopped her.

"Please don't go," Draco said meekly, his voice straining from disuse.

Hermione looked back and saw that he had opened his eyes and was reaching out with a restrained arm in her direction. She moved back to her perch beside his bed and said, "It's okay, I'm here. Do you know where you are?" she asked.

Draco shook his head, his eyes darting fearfully around the strange room with the strange lighting.

"Do you remember what year it is?" she asked, going through her usual list.

"2001?" he asked groggily.

"And do you know who the Minister for Magic is?" Hermione asked again.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt," Draco said, seeming to wake up a little more and sounding more confident in his answer.

"Good," Hermione said nodding, "and to answer the question I asked you, you're in St. Mungo's. Do you remember what happened yesterday?"

Draco shook his head, saying, 'No, I don't remember much of the last few days."

Hermione was shocked that he was having significant memory loss. "What is the last thing you remember?" she asked.

"Um…" he wracked his brain for answers. "Okay, I remember going to your office, and I remember going to the pub downstairs from my apartment. I'm pretty sure I went on a bender, but I don't know how I got from that pub to here."

Hermione could almost laugh out loud. Here she had been, suspecting dark magic, obliviation, or some residual effects of two years' exposure to dementors. But no, he had just been on a bender. There was probably no way she'd be recovering those memories, especially with him on sedatives. She noticed however, that he seemed much more like the man who'd met her in the office the other day. He seemed docile, simple and obedient. He was so different now than he had been in the apartment. She just needed to figure out what was causing the changes in mood. Although, she didn't know that it had happened or would happen again, other than with her in his apartment.

"Well," she said, choosing her words carefully. "To give a little insight into how you got here, do you remember me coming to your apartment yesterday?"

Draco thought hard on that, and realized he didn't, so he shook his head.

"Do you remember having a young woman in your apartment?" she asked, intrigued.

"No!" Draco said vehemently. "How can I not remember three or four whole days of my life?"

"It's okay, Draco, we'll figure it out," Hermione said, placing a hand on the bed to show she was on his team.

His restrained hand moved on top of hers, his wrists straining against the restraints for contact. She moved her hand a little closer so he would have to pull so hard.

"Please just help me," he begged, before his head fell back towards the pillow out of exhaustion. He didn't close his eyes, but just relaxed there.

A nurse came in with a vial and a chart. "Miss Granger, I'll need to check up on Mr. Malfoy here and administer the new antipsychotic."

"That's fine," Hermione said, not moving her hand from her patient's or her body from the seat. "I'm his counselor so I am privy to all medical records anyway."

The nurse seemed a little flustered by this, but went about her business. If Hermione had to describe the nurse's actions, she'd say that the nurse put a little extra touch into every motion in her test battery. She seemed to be quite taken with Malfoy, and no matter how many times she'd seen girls go for Draco, she'd never once understood it. The nurse set the vial on the bedside stand, and then held her wand up to Draco's head. It produced a puff of smoke that twisted itself into numbers. 37.0 Celsius was the reading, so Hermione knew that he didn't have a fever. Next the witch lit up the tip of her wand and shone it in his eyes, ears and nose. She seemed satisfied by this, and marked the results on Draco's chart. Finally she tapped his upper arm and a strap slithered out of the wand tip and around his arm. After a few moments, another puff of smoke gave the blood pressure reading, which was also normal.

"Well Mr. Malfoy, you are in perfect health just from these simple tests. We haven't found a medical reason for your outburst or your sudden drop in blood pressure, but I'm sure Miss Granger will be able to find a psychological reason." The nurse looked dubious as she said the last part, and it made Hermione's neck warm with anger and embarrassment. The nurse bent over Draco again, this time holding the vial. "This is a different drug to keep you calm. It won't be as strong as the sedative you're on now, so hopefully you won't feel so groggy and out of it."

"Are there any side effects?" Hermione asked.

The nurse answered without looking at Hermione, saying, "Not really. It acts a lot like alcohol in the system, depressing some systems but not to a fatal point. You may also experience a little dizziness, Mr. Malfoy, but nothing worse than a couple of drinks would do to you." She poured the vial into his mouth since he could not reach his face, and helped him tip back his chin to swallow.

Malfoy pulled a face, and Hermione guessed that it did not taste good at all.

She sat back in her chair, her hand still under Malfoy's and waited to see if he had any changes for the better or worse. She thought idly about the contact between them. The Draco Malfoy from school and the Draco Malfoy from the night before would be very angry with the Draco Malfoy sitting before her right now. She chuckled to herself as she realized the Hermione Granger from Hogwarts wouldn't be happy either. But she was a counselor, and offering comfort to her patients was part of her job. She was willing to overlook his past in the name of doing her job, but privately, she preferred the docile, obedient Draco to the one who'd made her life a living hell in school. Then again, the calm Draco lacked any kind of fire or determination, except for that moment when they'd discussed potions.

Hermione was shaken out of her reverie – quite literally – by Draco. His body writhed and tugged against the restraints and his head shook wildly as he tried to free himself. As his head rolled to the side, his eyes met hers, and he seemed to process her contact with his hand at the same time.

"Get off me you filthy mudblood!" he screamed, still writhing against the restraints pointlessly. "Let me out of this death trap!"

Hermione tried to stay calm at the insult, telling herself he was not in control of his body, and went to the hall to ask for a nurse. One came to her call, and Hermione was glad to see it was not the one who had been mooning over Draco before, but a male this time. As she went to the waiting room, Draco's voice followed her with a barrage of insults. As she let the male nurse calm Draco down, she tried to analyze what had changed to modify his mood, and sincerely hoped to herself that the nurse was a pureblood.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Hermione dialed Ginny's number on her mobile, hoping for once that Ginny would remember how to operate the phone.

"Ginny's phone," Harry answered. Hermione could tell he was grinning on the other end she would bet he had just wrestled it away from Ginny, or Ginny had tried to use it upside down or something.

"Hey Harry, it's me," Hermione said.

"Hey 'Mione, what's up?" he asked

"Actually I wanted to ask Ginny a question about some symptoms I'm seeing in a patient right now."

"Oh ok, nothing I can help with then?"

"Not unless you know anything about multiple personalities."

"Malfoy has more than one personality? Last I check he barely qualified as having _one_ personality!"

"Shut up Harry!" she said, but still laughed at his joke. He was pretty much dead on with that one. 'Just put your lovely fiancée on the phone please."

"Ok, here she is."

"Hey Hermione, what's up?"

"Not much, how are you?"

"Fine, I'm just cooking dinner. How can I help?"

"Well, I was wondering if you know of any instances of multiple personality disorder in the wizarding world."

"Well, as you probably know, a lot of the chemical imbalances that affect muggles are effectively evened out by a wizard's magic. It acts as a component to the human life force, which is also why wizards live about 20 years longer than muggles on average."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I think I read that about chemicals before. I'm just trying to think, is there any spell that could divide a personality? It seems like Malfoy is one way when he's sober and then when he got drunk, or in the hospital when he had an antipsychotic that affects the human body similarly to alcohol, he was completely different. It was violently different."

"You're at the hospital then? So I guess you won't be coming for Saturday night dinner, then."

"As much as I'd love to, I have to take advantage of the 48 hours I have Malfoy on the psych hold. So it looks like it's terrible hospital food and sleeping when he sleeps for me."

"Wait, how did you get him on psych hold?"

"Oh, didn't Jasmine tell you? He attacked me."

"WHAT?"

"Yeah, but I'm fine, just some bruises, and I'm scarred for life after seeing him naked."

"What kind of drugs are you on? You get attacked by a patient and don't call your best friend?"

"Sorry! I was admitted last night and they put me on pain killers that knocked me out all night. I just didn't think about it when I woke up today, since I've been dealing with Malfoy."

"You were bad enough to be admitted to St. Mungo's?" Ginny was literally shrieking in the phone at this point. "That's it; I'm coming down there and kicking that sorry Slytherin's ass!"

"Ginny, calm down. You've got a half dozen Weasleys coming over for dinner, and you don't want them all getting riled up and coming down here to do the same thing do you?"

"Actually…"

"Ginevra Weasley, you drop it this instant, and get back to cooking for the masses. I will be fine."

"Okay, just don't get yourself killed. I love you."

"Love you too, girl. See you after the 48 hours are up." Hermione flipped her mobile shut, and looked at the time on the outside of it. It was just after two in the afternoon. Hermione went back towards Draco's room, but it seemed he was sleeping peacefully. She decided to go down to the canteen and get something for a late lunch. Hopefully it wouldn't be as bad as she had mentioned to Ginny.

xxx

The food was far worse than she had imagined. Her salad was limp and her pumpkin juice tasted like it had started fermenting. She dumped it out and opted for water instead, which considering the state of the pumpkin juice was probably a healthier choice. As she picked through the limp rocket leaves, she tried to think of something that could be causing the dichotomy that was Draco Malfoy lately. She knew she had to solve the mystery before he got released from the hospital. Once he was out of St. Mungo's' care, she would have no control over his binge drinking, which could lead to an excessively hostile Malfoy on the streets, which was not good for anyone.

She abandoned the half eaten salad and went back to floor 7 to check on Malfoy. As she neared his room, she saw a gaggle of nurses outside of it, taking turns and pushing to see through the window.

The chatter was extremely annoying and it became quite clear as Hermione walked up, that the girls only had one thing on their minds.

"I heard it's the size of a – "

"– called him the Slytherin sex god because –"

"– like to psychoanalyze _him_ if you know what I mean!"

"I heard after you leave Azkaban, your whole sex life becomes–"

Hermione had had enough. "Quiet!" she yelled over the chatter. "Don't you ladies, and gentleman" she pointedly looked at the cute nurse she'd met the night before, "have patients to look after? Get away from mine!" She shooed them off, enjoying the disappointed looks on their faces. It served them right, treating him like a piece of meat. Although, it was kind of refreshing to see women (well mostly women) degrade a man for once. It was such a role reversal that it kind of threw Hermione for a loop.

Once the last nurse disappeared at the end of the hall, Hermione walked into Malfoy's room and returned to her seat by his side. He opened his eyes and looking over at her, tried to speak, but his voice was chafed, probably from screaming. She handed him a glass of water, which he gulped down greedily before trying to speak again.

"What happened?" he asked. "They gave me that potion and I blacked out a few minutes later. Did I just pass out?"

"No, Draco, and we need to talk about that. Remember when I talked about whether you remembered me being in your apartment?" Draco nodded, so she continued. "The reason I asked was because on Friday, you missed your appointment with me, so I went to your apartment to check on you."

"Wait, how do you know where I live?"

"You provided it when you began therapy with me. But anyway, I found you in bed with a woman. She woke up and apparated away, but when you woke up you were very angry. You attacked me."

"Is that where those bruises came from?" he asked numbly. Hermione nodded. "I'm so sorry. Why didn't you fight back with your wand?"

Hermione blushed and said sheepishly, "You knocked it out of my hand."

"Really? Even blacked out in some homicidal rage, I can disarm the great Hermione Granger? I mean I know I'm awesome, but come on." He sounded a little more like himself that time, but Hermione could tell the words didn't hold the same arrogance as they would have before.

"Well, it wasn't your abilities that were disarming so much as your… state of undress,' she explained, choosing her words carefully.

Draco groaned and closed his eyes. His hands pulled against the restraints, and Hermione realized if he could have he would have put his hands over his face. "Why am I all locked up like this?" he asked, testing the tension of the restraints.

"That would be because when they gave you the antipsychotic drug, you had another incident like before. It took a handful of nurses to sedate you."

"How did you calm me down the first time?" he asked.

"I didn't. You just kind of… let go and fell on the ground. You got really pale." She replied, clearly as confused as he was.

"I always get low blood pressure when I'm hung over," he said sagely.

"Maybe that's it. I mean, I know alcohol is causing the mood changes in general; I just need to figure out what it's affecting in your body to make you change. After all, you also had an incident when they gave you the antipsychotic drug, which the nurse said acts like alcohol." Hermione hoped her moment of insight would lead to a solution, but no such luck. She was going to need a library.

"Well, what are the attacks like, I mean, what do I say and do?" Draco asked, still trying to wrap his mind around the situation.

"Honestly?" Hermione asked, and he nodded. "Well you always scream slurs at me and pretty much try to kill anyone with less than pure blood."

Draco looked almost ashamed for a moment, and then seemed to close himself off. "Oh ok. Thanks for letting me know."

"You don't still think like that, do you?" she asked tentatively.

"After a person has seen the things I saw in Azkaban, the things I did, it… it just doesn't seem worth much to care about blood status. There are so many worse things to worry about," he said quietly, his eyes haunted.

"I know you lost your father while you were inside. Do you want to talk about it?" she said gently. She hadn't meant to get into this so soon in their work together, but it seemed like a natural time.

"My father didn't handle Azkaban well. He wasn't strong enough. He was loyal to the dark lord until the end, but he didn't have the same conviction in those last few months. It tore him up to be in there. I don't know what he saw when the dementors were near, but if it was anything like I saw, then I know why he did it."

"Why he did what?" Hermione asked cautiously.

Draco looked over her for a moment, as if wondering if she were worth telling. Then he gave a big sigh, and explained. "When you're a death eater, you have to learn certain rhetoric. The first is _fidelem usque mortem_, or 'loyal until death.' There are a few other things, like _in sanguine est honorem_which means 'in blood there is honor,' but the most important is this. _Nunc vadam ad dominum meum honorem in abyssum__. _Have you ever witnessed a Death Eater die in a way other than the killing curse?"

Hermione shook her head.

"Well, if a Death Eater is given the choice between survival and betraying secrets of the Dark Lord, he is bound by his contract to choose to die," Draco explained.

"Contract?" Hermione asked, doubting that Lord Voldemort was much for bookkeeping.

Draco indicated his left arm, and though Hermione couldn't see the scar that had taken over the place that held the Dark Mark, she knew it was there.

"That phrase means 'for the honor and glory of my Lord, I go now into the abyss.' The Knights of Walpurgis used it as their last words."

"Almost like an incantation," Hermione commented.

"No, it _is_ an incantation," Draco explained. "The Knights of Walpurgis are the predecessors of the Death Eaters, right? So their membership was restricted to a certain few members from specific bloodlines that they had decided needed to be preserved above others. These bloodlines are the majority of the remaining pureblooded families in Britain, although the Weasleys managed to survive thanks to their ability to procreate like rabbits." Draco rolled his eyes, and Hermione had to giggle a little at that.

"Anyway, when a person died in the Knights of Walpurgis, they had to be replaced by someone from one of the bloodlines, and in order to do that, they had to give up their blood right to the spot. So they used that incantation, before dying to allow a new member in. It's a tradition that's been held over to the Death Eaters."

After getting past the historical part of his story, Draco seemed to become quieter, and she dared to say he seemed emotional, though an emotional Draco was not something she had experienced before.

"Did you know when I was in Azkaban, my father and I shared a cell? It was horrifying. Every time the dementors would come around, all I could ever see was him beating me. Then when the image would fade as they made their way to the other side of the island, I would have to face him there in the cell with me. It was a horrible cycle. Then one day, he said it. I remember it was an especially bad day. I think someone was being released and that was why the dementors were extra horrific. I saw the time he beat me bloody for playing in a sandbox with a muggleborn child. I was only 6 years old."

A single tear escaped Draco's eye as he remembered, and Hermione tried to hold back a sob as she imagined a poor innocent 6 year old boy being beaten to a pulp by his father. She had never realized the lengths of Lucius' abuses.

"So I'm already reeling from the memory and as soon as the dementors are slightly out of range, he says the incantation. I knew it meant that he was going to relinquish himself for the kiss. No one manages the dementors, not really. The guards can't be without a patronus, and if they bring the patronus around it would give the prisoners relief, so they don't patrol. Pretty much any prisoner who begs for the kiss gets it."

Hermione was shocked to hear this, but held her tongue as Draco finished his story.

"In that moment, I knew he was a coward, and after seeing the memories day after day, spending all my waking hours and most of my dreams regretting my inability to fight back, I just snapped. I decided he didn't deserve the dementor's kiss and I didn't deserve to be trapped with the soulless shell of a man for the next year. So I killed him."

Hermione audibly gasped. "You killed your father?" she asked in a hushed voice.

"It turns out it was better for him in the end. The male nurse who talked to me said he was happy I was exciting because his other patient had the dementor's kiss. He explained to me that without the soul itself, he was trapped inside his own body. There are still brain waves and everything, just no actual soul. Lucius won. I freed him from his body, but I didn't know that at the time." He looked down at his blanket and picked at a fuzz ball there.

Hermione didn't know what to say. She had never had to deal with a murderer before. Was it really consider a murder if you were in Azkaban? What if you were in Azkaban and a Death Eater? What if you were in Azkaban and a Death Eater who couldn't even love his own son? She knew the right thing to do would be to report him, but she didn't want to; at least not yet. She needed to save him from himself first.

"I understand if you have to report me," Draco said suddenly.

Hermione stared at him inscrutably and replied, "I'm just worried about getting you better. I need to go to the library, but I'll be back soon, okay?"

Draco smiled a little, muttering "Bookworm," but snuggled down into the bed as best as he could and tried to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Hermione walked to the nurse's station, and asked the nurse on duty to page Nancy Donovan. The nurse obliged, and soon, Nancy called to the nurse's station, and the nurse gave Hermione the phone.

"Hey Nance, it's Hermione."

"Hey, what's up?" Nancy sounded a little frazzle, but as she worked in intake, frazzled was expected.

"I was just wondering if you still have a key to the hospital library?"

"Yeah, I'm still working on my final thesis. I can meet you on that floor if you want."

"Okay, okay, I'll admit, I don't remember which floor the library's on." Hermione was thinking how Harry and Ron would laugh their butts off if they knew she forgot where a library was.

"It's on level three. Meet you there in a minute!"

Hermione handed the phone back to the nurse, thanked her and hit the elevator call button. It took a while to get to her, and Hermione realized it may have been because Nancy had called it to take her to 3 before she called it from 7. Once the elevator hit floor 3, the doors opened to reveal a haggard Nancy with scrubs the color of split pea soup.

"What happened to your happy pink scrubs?" Hermione asked, disappointed.

"Some idiot miscast an ever-refilling bowl charm, and instead made its contents ever-expanding. The poor bloke who drank the soup got here just before his stomach burst. So, yes, these are my happy pink scrubs." Nancy turned around and Hermione could see where the split pea soup from the man's distended stomach hadn't completely covered her scrubs in the back. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah yeah, Hermione, just keep laughing. In the meantime I'll just go back upstairs with my handy little library key." Nancy hit the call elevator button, and Hermione immediately stopped laughing.

"I'm sorry!" she said, trying to keep a straight face. "It's just that I really needed that laugh after the depressing day I've had."

"I'm sorry sweetie," Nancy replied. "I'd hug you but, you know, soup."

"You should probably go change, or at least try scourgifying the ones you have on," Hermione suggested.

"You think I haven't tried that? Something about the soup, once we got it to stop expanding, it won't react to any other charms." Nancy looked very upset about the state of her scrubs, so Hermione decided to let her go.

"I also need that key," she said in a tiny voice, pointing with one little finger at the key ring on Nancy's finger.

"I guess so," Nancy said, smirking. 'She pulled out the key in question and made a copy of it with her wand. "This copy will only work as long as you're in the building, so be careful not to drop it out the window or anything!"

Hermione giggled to herself as she walked down the hall to the deserted wing of St. Mungo's that held their library. She finally arrived at the room, and saw that there was no one inside, or at least no light shone through the frosted glass window in the door. Hermione inserted the key, and turned it, greeted by a serious of clicks as the magical lock opened.

Pushing the door inward, Hermione found she had the overwhelming urge to sneeze. TI didn't seem like anyone had dusted in there lately. Pressing on, she found the section on mental disorders and began her search.

Two hours later, she was no closer to figuring out what was ailing Malfoy than she was when she started. Actually, she might be farther away, because in the past 2 hours she had diagnosed herself with at least 10 mental disorders thanks to the books she'd been reading.

Before giving up, she decided to give one more book a try. It was called _Body Mind and Soul; a holistic approach to magical healing_. This was the last book in the reference section on mental disorders, and she was pretty sure it wasn't even supposed to be in this section. It looked like someone hadn't been paying attention and had put it there because of the word "mind" in the title.

Flipping through the pages she tried to read the fading print. It was a challenge, but with some help from the _Lumos_ charm and her wand, she managed to read most of the book. The most remarkable thing she found was the explanation of how the soul can become splintered in times of great trauma or sacrifice. That part reminded her of how a horcrux is formed; the soul is split into two pieces and one piece ends up in an inanimate object, and can only be achieved by the act of killing another human being.

The idea gave Hermione a chill and she snapped the book shut. She did not need to be thinking about Voldemort or horcruxes or any of that. It was the past and she was living her life as a successful, _normal_ witch. She tried to convince herself to calm down, but in reality, all the information she'd gotten that morning about Death Eaters and Lucius Malfoy just made her feel scared again.

As she walked down the hall, she clenched her fist, and the scar tissue on her arm shone white against her tan skin. She looked down at it, a constant reminder of the bigotry of the Death Eaters, and of people like the Blacks and the Malfoys. _Not all Blacks are bad, what about Sirius?_ asked a tiny voice in her head. She didn't need to think about that. If she thought about Sirius it would make her feel empathetic to Draco. For Merlin's sakes, he was a murderer! Sure, he had kept his father from a long, drawn out death or living his life without a soul, but still. That didn't make it right.

Hermione rode the elevator down to level 7, preparing herself to check on Draco again. She had demanded they discontinue the use of antipsychotics, but there was no telling what he'd have a reaction to next. The elevator door opened and immediately, Hermione's ears were met with shrieks. She jump out of the elevator, wand at the ready, and realized it was just Narcissa Malfoy, yelling at a nurse. Of course, it was never _just_ Narcissa Malfoy. Her body guard was close by, as always.

The elevator dinged once more before the doors closed, drawing Narcissa's attention to Hermione.

"Where is my son? How dare you keep him away from me! This under qualified, unintelligent excuse for a nurse won't tell me where my baby boy is!" She was absolutely shrieking, like a bloody banshee. This was not what Hermione needed on top of getting her sinuses pummeled by dust. The combination would soon give her a migraine. "Tell me right now where he is! I'm taking him home!" Narcissa finally stopped long enough to give Hermione a chance to talk.

"First of all Narcissa, Draco is fine. He's here. He's safe. But you can't take him home. He needs to stay for another-" she checked her watch, and went on, "40 hours. He'll be released Monday morning at 9 am. You can see him then. For now he's a danger to himself and others." Hermione used her best soothing counselor voice, but it was hard to keep it even. Thoughts of husbands murdered by sons and mothers who didn't stand up for their children threatened to make the dam burst. "Will that be all?" she asked coldly.

"J-just take care of my son," Narcissa said, with an uncharacteristic hiccup interrupting her speech. Narcissa summoned the elevator with the saddest look in her eyes. Hermione couldn't help it; she held her arms out and drew the older woman into a hug. She may not have stood up for her son against his father at a young age, but she certainly cared for him now. After all, Narcissa was the only friend Draco had in the world. She thought about it for a moment, and made a decision.

"Maybe you could see him for just a moment," she whispered into Narcissa's ear kindly. She had to stretch on her tippy toes to reach the older and taller woman's ear, but it would not do to let the nurse on duty know what was about to go down.

"Really?" asked Narcissa with all the youthful excitement of a kid on Christmas day. Hermione put a finger to her lips and gestured to the nurse on duty. Narcissa nodded and fell into step behind her silently. Behind them, the elevator that had been called previously left without any passengers.

"Okay, Hermione said in hushed tones once they reached the end of the hall. 'You can't go in, but you may look through the window. I'm sorry; it's the best I can do. I just don't know what might set him off, and I couldn't let him hurt anyone else."

Narcissa nodded, her eyes filled with tears. She wiped them away with a handkerchief and peered into the window within the door. She stared at her son for a few minutes, and Hermione wondered what he was doing. Later it would turn out Draco was sleeping, which made Narcissa's moments with her son that much more precious.

Hermione gave Narcissa a few moments, and then figured it had been long enough. "You have to go now, but I promise I will find out what's going on with your son and return him to his apartment safe and sound on Monday morning."

Narcissa nodded with a heartbreaking smile, and her body guard led her away. Hermione really hoped she would be able to live up to her promise.


	7. Chapter 7

Hermione went to the cafeteria to grab some dinner, and it was slightly more impressive than lunch, but not by much. For dinner, she avoided the premade salads and went for the hot food. They were serving burgers that tasted suspiciously vegan, fries and pudding. It reminded Hermione of the meal she'd had after her appendix was removed when she was younger.

Hermione picked at the food for a few minutes, but then decided to take it up to Draco's room to see if he wanted company. It was probably dinner time for him as well.

Hermione made it just outside Draco's door with her tray when a nurse stopped her.

"Mr. Malfoy is eating," the nurse said, "So his restraints have been removed from his arms. I don't think it's a good idea for you to be in there."

"As long as the pudding isn't made with rum, I think I'll be fine. His symptoms have been triggered by a change in chemicals or endorphins normally related to alcohol. I don't think there's a chance of him attacking during the meal," Hermione said smartly, as if to prove that this was _her_ patient, and she could handle anything.

"Hi Draco," she said softly, entering the room. She waited for him to see her, and when he looked up from his burger, there was almost happiness there.

"Hey Granger," he said after swallowing. "Sorry if I seem overly excited. I don't remember the past few days, so that makes this the best meal I've had since I went to Azkaban."

"That's pretty sad, Malfoy," she remarked as she picked over her food.

"To be honest, I didn't know if I would ever get out of there alive. I kept thinking that I would go crazy," he said a little more somberly. "Mmm, it's butterscotch!" he exclaimed a moment later.

Hermione couldn't help but giggle.

He looked at her sharply. "You giggle," he stated matter-of-factly.

"No I don't," she parried. "That was just a laugh."

"Well fine, back yourself out of a compliment Granger. I was going to say it was cute, but if it's just a small laugh then… eh." He waved his hand in a so-so motion, and then went back to his pudding.

Hermione didn't understand his mood right now. He must have started drinking straight after their meeting on Monday. How could he drink for 5 days in a row, completely blacked out? It was a miracle he survived. She thought about what he said about thinking he'd go crazy, and found a question she hadn't thought to ask before.

"Was it better?" she asked. "After your dad was gone I mean. Was it better or worse?"

Draco pondered the thought for a moment, his spoonful of pudding hanging rather uselessly in the air between his plate and his mouth. "I think it was better. At least the images I saw when the dementors passed."

"What did you see then?" Hermione asked, not sure whether it was too personal or not.

Draco put his spoon down and turned to stare at her for a moment, as if searching for permission to say something he knew she wouldn't want to hear. Then he answered, "I saw every bad thing I'd done to anyone I had ever met. I spent a lot of time on Weasley, and plenty on Harry. I even saw things that they would never know about; situations where they wouldn't hear my thoughts, but my heart recorded them. And I saw you-" he broke off, and turned away.

"It's okay, Draco. I forgave you for all the terrible things you said and did two years ago. Once Voldemort was dead, it was clear that you were just a lost boy following orders from his father, wanting to make him proud. I never faulted you for any of that," she replied, placing a hand on the bed as she had earlier.

"Really?" he said almost under his breath, his grey eyes bringing themselves to meet hers meekly, yet burning with intensity.

"Of course. Harry and Ron, on the other hand can hold a grudge though." Hermione said with a little laugh. Draco's eyes did not soften and his mouth did not laugh. Instead he just kept staring at her, staring through her, into her, with that burning intensity that she didn't understand, that she couldn't place.

Draco lifted her hand up to his face, where he nuzzled his cheek against it. Hermione's breath caught in her throat at the gesture, but immediately she was flooded with guilt. She was his counselor! She had a professional duty not to become romantically or physically involved with any patient. As kindly as she could, she pulled her hand away, and said, "I don't think that's a good idea, Draco."

His face began to redden, and Hermione realized her mistake as quickly as his hand reached out to grab her. Endorphins! Endorphins could have the same effect as alcohol in this situation! She hadn't thought of it, but luckily she managed to hop back out of his reach. She stuck her wand in a port in the wall, which emitted a loud siren, alerting the nurses she needed help.

He was already tugging at the leg restraints, not realizing how they were buckled in his moment of brute force. A moment later, the nurses came in, and Hermione slipped out, ignoring the shouts and strings of curse words being thrown at her from Malfoy's mouth. She didn't want to see him that way.

She left a note on the nurse's station that said 'In on-call room if needed, sleeping. –Hermione Granger'

She went to the on call room as she had written, but the twin size beds inside were not comfortable to her. With the power of magic, they could expand this room and fill it with more comfortable, bigger beds. Realizing she could do the same thing, she cast a few charms to make the sheets softer, the pillows plusher, and finally an undetectable extension charm on the bed itself. Now she could stretch out to her heart's content, without taking up more space in the on call room.

_Well, today was a dead end,_ Hermione thought. She didn't know what was wrong with Draco, or even if it were anything she could fix. He had so many problems from his past, his criminal behavior, his not finishing school due to be incarcerated, all of this even without the alcohol-induced mood swings. If she could just fix this one problem, she thought he would be easy to counsel. He obviously wanted to make a change, and she really wanted to help him.

xxx

Hermione was back in the Forest of Dean, as often happened in her nightmares. She hadn't had a nightmare like this in quite some time, so it took Hermione off guard, and she couldn't lucid dream her way out of it. She was in the tent, wearing the locket. Ron had just left minutes, no, was it days ago? She couldn't remember, and the time on her watch kept changing. She tried to focus on the book she was reading. She knew it was important.

The locket around her neck opened, and a figure appeared before her. It was Hermione's doppelganger; a perfect match, except the eyes. Hermione's eyes were chestnut brown. The doppelganger's eyes were stormy silver.

"Stupid girl," the doppelganger spat. "You know I'm important, but you can't figure out how. You just keep going over the same pages over and over." Hermione looked down at her book, and realized there were many pages, but they all had the same print. She flipped and flipped and flipped the pages, but couldn't find any more information.

"You can't even bring yourself to look for another book, a book that might help you," the doppelganger. Hermione's mirror image with the silvery grey eyes was holding up a book, but Hermione couldn't see the cover. She leaned forward to catch a glimpse of the binding, but her legs were glued to the seat.

"You'll never solve it, you'll never save him," taunted the doppelganger.

Hermione screamed in response, unable to form words in her complete anger and frustration.

The doppelganger leaned down to Hermione's ear and whispered, "You'll never be good enough for him, because you'll never tell him how you fell.

xxx

Hermione woke up in her magically modified bed in the on call room. Checking her watch she saw that it was 9 am already. _24 hours down, 24 more to go,_ she thought to herself. She tried to remember what she'd been dreaming about, but could only hold onto three scraps: a yellow bound book, grey eyes and a horcrux.

**A/N: Thanks for the response so far on this fic! This is the first time I've written from a prompt or from someone else's idea, but let me just say, I think it's turning out well! I hope no one's disappointed by the fic so far, but whether you love or hate it, I would appreciate a review! Every little note you leave me in the reviews helps me get better, and crank out better stories for you! This is my fourth chapter today, and it's gotten me pretty far through my timeline so far. Maybe I can crank out another one for you tonight, but we'll see!**


	8. Chapter 8

Hermione shook off her sleepiness, but she couldn't get rid of the lingering memories of her nightmare. It had seemed so important, and now she couldn't remember the whole thing. She had less than 24 hours to figure out what was going on with Draco before he was released. She had to make sure that he didn't hurt anyone. She had no idea what his angry alter-ego would do if left unchecked. She mentally cursed the hospital policy that if no diagnosis was made within the psych hold period she'd have no grounds to keep him further.

Lost in her thoughts, she had ended up outside Draco's door. She looked inside and saw him peacefully sleeping, though his restraints had been refastened, so she felt safe going in to see him. She sat next to his bed and pulled out her notepad. She looked over the notes she had written about Draco's condition so far and tried to connect the pieces.

_Malfoy, Draco_

_Exhibiting bouts of extreme rage. Rage is characterized by physical violence, yelling and a heightening in blood pressure._

_Possible triggers: alcohol, anti-psychotics, endorphins?_

_Rage seems to be isolated to the incidents, while in a calm state, patient seems more subdued than normal._

_Possible causes: anger sensors being triggered by alcohol and narcotics? Multiple personality disorder?_

Hermione wanted to scratch out the multiple personality disorder option, but it seemed to fit so well. All her research showed the contrary, though, stating that a wizard's magic counterbalances any chemical imbalances. She guessed that meant that every witch or wizard had the inherit ability to choose actively between good and evil.

At the bottom of the page, she jotted down her memories of the dream

_Yellow bound book_

_Horcrux_

_Grey eyes_

Well, the grey eyes clearly indicated the dream had to do with Draco's condition. She just wished she could remember what happened in the dream. She didn't actually remember Draco being there, only his eyes.

She jumped up, struck by an idea. She dashed out of the room, not bothering to notice that Draco's eyes opened as she left. When she got to the nurse's station, she stopped, and realized she'd been running. Calming her heart rate, she waited for the nurse on duty to get off the phone.

"Can I help you, Miss Granger?" the nurse asked.

"Out of curiosity, is there anywhere in the hospital that I could get access to a pensieve?" Hermione asked, a little out of breath from running as well as the excitement she always had when she found a new way to deal with a problem.

"Yes, I think so," the nurse said. After checking a floor list, she said, "Check in memory loss recovery. They're on the East wing of the 4th floor."  
Hermione started to go, when she realized she didn't know which way was East in the underground building. "Um, which way is East when I get there?' she asked, blushing at the foolish question.

The nurse smiled easily, and replied, "Take a left when you get off the elevator, you'll see arrows pointing to the memory loss recovery wing."

"Thanks!" Hermione chirped, hitting the button to summon the elevator. Once she got in, she waited impatiently for it to arrive on the 4th floor, tapping her foot. On floor 6 the elevator opened, and Nancy stepped on.

Nancy looked over her acquaintance's stance and chuckled. "In a hurry, Hermione?" she asked.

"Actually, yes. I don't have a solution yet, but I think I know how I can get close," she said, grinning.

"Good luck!" Nancy said as the elevator landing on floor 4. Hermione dashed out of the elevator and turned left, verifying that she was following the right sign. It seemed memory loss recovery had more funding than the psych ward, for the front office was very posh and upscale. A stereotypically gorgeous blonde witch was sitting at the desk with her back to Hermione, who cleared her throat carefully to get the witch's attention.

To Hermione's surprise, the lithe blonde witch at the desk was Luna Lovegood!

"Hermione!" the girl greeted her dreamily. "What brings you to my office?"

"Luna, I thought you were still working with pregnant witches on level 2?" Hermione questioned, her grin completely insuppressible as she saw her old friend.

"Well, delivering babies was nice," Luna said fairly, "but I thought I could do better here. Besides, Neville and I are still together, and his parents are in this ward. I'm still hoping I could help them in some way."

Hermione's heart ached for poor Neville and his parents. She was happy to hear that Luna and Neville's relationship had lasted longer than her and Ron's had. "I'm so happy to hear that you're still together. How is everything?" Hermione asked, momentarily distracted from her mission.

"It's wonderful. We actually were hoping to get together some of the old crowd for a dinner party sometime soon. It's been so long since we've been all together."

Hermione smiled at Luna, but she knew in her heart she was right. The real world had separated them all in ways they'd never imagined, but they all attempted to remain friends. "That would be great Luna, I'd love to attend. Now, back to why I'm here, I was wondering if I could use a pensieve." Hermione sincerely hoped her plan would work, and this moment was the clincher.

"Of course, we have a lab in the back with pensieves. How long do you need it?" she asked, pulling out the appropriate form.

"Just a few minutes, no more than an hour," Hermione replied, grateful for Luna's help.

"Okay, that will be fine, just fill this out, and then I'll take you back," Luna said, handing her a clipboard and quill. "Oh, do you still have privileges here?" Luna asked.

Hermione nodded, filling out the simple form. 'I work at the Diagon Alley Rehabilitation Center, so I have limited privileges here, but equipment use should definitely be permitted." Having finished the form, she handed it back, and Luna stood to take her to the back.

Hermione followed Luna through a hall full of patient rooms, all of which held patients who had lost memories or cognitive abilities due to either obliviation, imperius curses or other situations. The father she got, the worse the patients were, until finally they reached the back lab.

The room was dark and cool, but when Luna flipped on the light, Hermione saw that there were 4 tables, all filled with pensieves of various sizes and shapes. She was surprised at how many different forms the pensieves took, though it merely had to be a basin of sorts, so it also made sense.

Luna pointed out a couple at one end and said, "The older pensieves work for older memories, as they hold more magic. The larger one is, the more powerful it will be. Smaller and newer ones are best for recent memories."

"Is there one that could help me recover a dream?" Hermione asked, intrigued.

Luna pointed in the far corner. There was a sparkly pensieve that shone all the colors of the rainbow.

"Really?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I designed it myself," Luna said, unsure as to why Hermione was confused.

"Of course you did," Hermione said, smiling. "Well, I guess I'll get to it. Thanks again!"

Hermione made her way to the far corner, and stood over the garish pensieve. Of course if Luna created something it would be as dreamy and whimsical as possible. Shaking her head with mirth, Hermione tried to focus on what she remembered of her dream.

She pulled a strand of silver from her temple, focusing as hard as she could on the dream. She only hoped it would be good enough. Placing it in the bowl, Hermione took a deep breath, then pitched her head forward into the bowl.

She fell forward into the world of her dream, but this time, she was a third party bystander. She watched as the dream played out, and the memories came rushing back. Her doppelganger was every bit as scary now as she had been the night before. Hermione crept up and tried to see the writing on the book, but there was none. She supposed since she never knew the title, she wouldn't be able to see it now. She saw the doppelganger whispering in her dream form's ear, and Hermione knew the dream would be over soon.

Then, something unexpected happened. The doppelganger turned and faced Hermione. She couldn't interact with anyone, she was just visiting a memory, right? The doppelganger seemed to think otherwise, and eyed Hermione greedily.

"Smarter than I thought, aren't you, girl?" the doppelganger asked.

"This isn't possible," Hermione said, backing away from the evil look in the doppelganger's borrowed eyes.

"Why, didn't you want to come see me?" it asked, and before Hermione's eyes it turned into Draco.

"Help me!" Draco said, pushing the book into her hands. "You're the only one who can."

And with that, Hermione was pulled back out of the pensieve. It was absolutely the strangest and most off-putting experience of her life so far. Hermione immediately collapsed to the floor and began sobbing. She had prepared herself to relive a nightmare, and that had taken a lot, but she hadn't wanted the nightmare to take over and continue! Not only that, the Draco look-alike had exuded such emotion, such sorrow. Maybe that was another clue, but she couldn't understand the emotion fully. She tried to dig deep and understand it, but just came up with more maybes. Was it regret or sorrow? Maybe it was pain or pleading. She decided instead to go to the library and see if she could find that book again.

Lucky for Hermione, she hadn't left the hospital yet, so she still had a key. She went down the hall back towards the elevator, stopping only to say goodbye to Luna.

"Bye Luna!" she called on her way past the desk, "It really helped!"

"Anytime, Hermione," Luna replied with a mysterious smile.

xxx

Hermione arrived in the library and combed the shelves for any book with yellow binding. It looked like someone had restocked the shelves while she was gone. She checked every book in the section she had been in, but none of them were the book from the dream. Hermione rubbed her temples with frustration, trying to will herself to remember where she'd seen the book.

Her stomach growled, and Hermione checked her watch. It was 2 o'clock already. Only 19 hours left to save Draco! She was just about to leave and get some lunch, when a book caught her eye in the section near the door. The section was labeled "Holistic Medicine," and it looked like it was rarely consulted. There was exactly one book that was dust free, however, and it had a yellow cover.

She pulled the book down, and realized she _had_ seen it before. It was _Body Mind and Soul; a holistic approach to magical healing, _the book that she had disregarded the night before. She took it with her to the cafeteria, mentally blessing whatever being brought her attention to it.

xxx

Lunch was dreary, but as it was Sunday it was a little better than usual. Sunday was a common day for visitors, since most people worked during the week and Quidditch was on Saturdays. Hermione still didn't understand Quidditch. It was like some kind of cult. There were quite a few visitors in the cafeteria, and Hermione had to wait in line, but when she got there, they changed the food pan just before her, so at least her meatloaf was fresh.

She picked through the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and vegetables mindlessly, while poring over the book. She came to the same section that had caught her attention the night before. It explained how a soul could be split in times of trauma or stress, and once again Hermione was reminded of horcruxes. This time, though, thanks to her dream, she knew horcruxes were a clue and not just a coincidence.

She grabbed her mobile and dialed up Ginny's number.

"Hey! How goes saving the lost cause?" Ginny's greeting was a little harsh, but Hermione probably deserved it for ditching the first family dinner since harry and she had gotten engaged.

"Actually, I called to talk to Harry, is he home?"

"Sure here he is."

Hermione waited for a moment, but her heart filled with hope when she heard Harry's voice.

"Hey Hermione, what's up?" His voice sounded a little odd to Hermione.

"Are you okay? You sound… off."

"We're still eating leftovers from yesterday, I think I'm about to pop."

"Okay, well gather up your intestinal fortitude, because I have some serious questions. Okay, what do you know about horcruxes?"

"Um, when a wizard takes another's life, their soul splinters and goes into the nearest inanimate or animate object, if it's prepared correctly."

"Do you know anything about preparing the object?"

"No, and please don't tell me you're considering making a horcrux, Hermione. I doubt Malfoy would actually try to kill you. Well, wait, no I don't."

"No, no I'm just testing a hypothesis, bare with me. Okay, so if a person was in a room where all the objects were imperceptible to magic, like they are in Azkaban, and they killed a person with their bare hands. Is there a chance their soul could splinter but stay within their body?"

"I suppose so, but that wouldn't be very good. I've lived with an evil piece of Voldemort in me before, and it's not pretty."

"Remind me of your symptoms, _please_."

"I would black out, or have visions, and there were some physical ones, but that was mostly pain in my scar."

"Thank you so much, Harry, you've been a huge help!"

'Of course, any time. But Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Make sure you explain this to me when all is said and done. I want to know what my answers led to."

"Don't worry, if this is true, and I succeed at what I'm going to try, I'm writing a damn book."

Hermione shut the phone, mulling over her assumptions and suspicions. It was time to go see Malfoy.


	9. Chapter 9

Hermione entered Malfoy's room, and saw that once again the arm restraints had been removed to allow him to eat lunch. At least they were giving him that much freedom. As long as he didn't come in contact with any depressants, he would be fine. They had also put him on an endorphin blocker to avoid any accidents. This was bound to make anyone depressing and emotionless, but Hermione realized that was how he'd been all along. He was cold and lackluster, not like the coldness of his younger years, but emptier.

Hermione sat at the side of Malfoy's bed and tried to explain what she thought was going on with him.

"Draco, when the incident with your father happened," she began.

"You mean when I killed him?" he asked, looking up from his lunch. There was no malice or contempt in the phrase, and his eyes were oddly empty. She didn't know why she hadn't noticed that emptiness before.

"Yes. Did you feel anything happen to your magic when it happened?" she asked.

"I don't know. I hadn't used any magic in so long, but I was very emotional, I guess," he said fairly.

"Have you ever been able to do wandless magic?" she asked.

"Well, I mastered voiceless magic in 6th year, and I tried to train during the war, but I never really got the hang of it," he replied between bites of pudding.

"I think you did, Draco," she said gently. "When a wizard takes another's life, for any reason, in any way, there is always magic involved. Did you ever know why Voldemort was so strong, and seemingly immortal?" Hermione asked.

Draco shook his head in a way that made her think he didn't really want to know anything about Lord Voldemort.

"Well," she went on, "he broke his soul up into pieces and put the pieces into inanimate objects, that way if his body was ever killed, his soul would not die."

"That's crazy," Draco muttered without conviction. "There's got to be an easier way to achieve immortality."

"I agree, because the only way he could make one of these objects, called a horcrux, was by taking another human life. When the soul is put through that kind of pain and suffering, it splinters into pieces, and in Voldemort's case, he had prepared magical objects to contain the pieces."

"You think that's what happened to me?" Draco asked, his eyes suspiciously empty of emotion.

"I don't know," Hermione said evenly. "It's never been documented to happen without a wand. But if I'm right-"

Draco snorted, but Hermione continued.

"If I'm right, then your soul did split when you killed Lucius. But since all the objects in Azkaban are magic repellent to deter breakouts, your soul had nowhere else to go. If it had simply left yourself, the dementors would have consumed it, and you would be stuck spending the rest of your life like you are right now."

"I like how I am right now," Draco said without conviction. "I don't have to be angry, or feel any bad emotions. And you talk to me when I'm like this."

"I would talk to you either way," Hermione said, confused.

"No you wouldn't. I was a terrible man; a horrible bigoted supremacist and I never gave you the respect you deserved. You were so much smarter than me, but I was almost on your level. We should have been working together, not fighting. But my father raised me to be a different man. And if I were that man, I wouldn't be able to get past the blood in your veins long enough to tell you any of this. And that's a fact." Draco said his little speech with no emotion or intensity, but simply listed it as though facts on a roster. It seemed obvious to him.

"Draco, I never forgave you for your choice to fight on the wrong side, but I never hated you either. I think part of me understood you were bound by familial bonds, and had your destiny set out for you. If I can fix this, and put your soul back together, you will just have to learn to suppress those feelings of hate. I can help you with that. That's why you're in therapy to begin with." Hermione was not devoid of emotions. She even felt a lone tear slide down her cheek at one point, but it didn't seem to have an effect on Draco.

"No," he said firmly. "I don't want you to put my soul back together. I want to stay like this. I don't want to feel all the evil I've done, and see all the people I've hurt and feel regret."

"That's what makes you human, Draco," Hermione interrupted. "You have to face up to your past, and come out a better person on the other side. Besides, if we don't get you back in one piece, you're likely to keep having these episodes. The last time, the dark side of your soul took over for almost 5 whole days. Don't you think it'd be capable of taking you over for the rest of your life?"

"No," Draco said, turning away. "I won't let you take this peace away from me."

Hermione stood abruptly and left the room before her tears of anger could betray her. In the hallway, she dropped to the floor, sobbing, trying to think of a way to convince him otherwise. She thought for a while, and finally came up with her only resort. She was going to pull rank on him.

xxx

At the nurse's station, she asked for the nearest floo fireplace. It was apparently in the lobby, so Hermione hurried up there to start her plan. She grabbed a handful of glittering powder from the communal pot, and threw it into the flames, yelling, "Malfoy Manor!" Then she was pulled away on green flames, passing grate after grate until landing in a heap in the Malfoy's hearth.

She stood to leave the fireplace, but there was some sort of spell keeping her from moving. She assumed that it must be the wards. The spell did not keep her from speaking, thankfully, so she yelled Narcissa's name until the stately older woman appeared in the room, which seemed to be a parlor.

"Miss Granger," Narcissa said, raising a gloved hand to her mouth in surprise. She sued her other hand to wave her wand, and Hermione felt the weight crushing on her back lift and disappear.

"I'm sorry for barging in on you, but your son needs your help," Hermione said, brushing the soot off her robes.

"Of course," Narcissa smiled with a worried smile. "Let's away at once."

Hermione nodded and the two rode the floo back to St. Mungo's. On the way to the elevator and on the ride up Hermione roughly hashed out what was going on. "I need to find a way to repair his soul, but in the meantime, he's refusing to let me do it. I don't know if it's the state he's in, or just his conscience getting the better of him, but I thought you could talk to him and maybe help him make the right decision."

Narcissa nodded sagely, and went into Draco's room. She immediately sat next to the bed and took her son's hand. Hermione watched from the window for a moment as they began to talk, then came to her senses and went to the library to find a charm, incantation or potion to help her save Draco's soul.

xxx

Three hours later, and Hermione was still without a solution. She had found some hints at older ceremonies, but nothing substantial. It was 6 o' clock, leaving 15 hours on her Draco clock. She realized she hadn't eaten all day, so she went down to the cafeteria to give her brain a break.

As she sat down at a random table with her Salisbury steak, she saw a familiar head of hair across the room. She walked that way but didn't approach until she was sure… the girl flipped her golden locks over her shoulder with a tinkling laugh, and Hermione knew that she was right – it was Luna Lovegood.

"Hey Luna!" Hermione greeted happily. "Hey Neville!" she said after a moment, realizing that was who she was with. "I didn't mean to interrupt your meal, I just saw you from across the room," Hermione added sheepishly.

"No worries, Hermione," Neville said standing to hug her. Hermione put her tray down and greeted her old friend, whom she hadn't seen for a few months at least. "It's good to see you," he went on, sitting again. "What are you doing here?"

"Please, sit Hermione," Luna said with a smile. "Neville forgets his manners sometimes."

Hermione grinned and sat down, then said, "I'm treating a patient who I think has had his soul split, but not into a horcrux."

"Like you –know who?" Neville asked nervously.

"Well not exactly. He didn't do it on purpose, like Voldemort did. Also he was in Azkaban at the time, so there were no objects the soul could go into. It's turned him into a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

Luna laughed, but Neville just looked confused. "Dr. who?" he asked in his confusion, which sent Hermione into even more laughter.

"Sometimes I am so glad to have a friend that keeps up with muggle culture, Luna," Hermione said when she couldn't laugh any more.

Luna smiled, but Hermione could practically see the gears turning in her head as she tried to think of a solution to help Hermione. After a few moments of silence, in which Hermione tried to eat the food in front of her, Luna spoke up.

"I think I have an idea," she said excitedly.

"Sure, anything can help at this point," Hermione said shrugging.

"When I worked in intake, we had a spell we used that could scan the brain and it would emit these energies that we could read to tell the status of it. I think you could basically sue that spell to find the pieces of his soul, by changing the incantation to include soul instead of brain. That should help you find the two pieces, but then you just need a way to get them to become one again."

Hermione was constantly amazed by Luna's insight, and told her so. "I'm so glad I saw you guys over here; you've been a huge help," she said as she got up to check on Draco. "14 hours left!" she said excitedly before leaving.

xxx

Outside Draco's room, Hermione saw Draco and Narcissa basically in the same position as before. She opened the door and two sets of eyes, one grey and one blue, locked on to her.

"How are you," she asked Draco, placing a hand on the post at the foot of the bed.

"Mother has been trying to convince me to let you fix my soul," Draco replied.

"And?" Hermione prompted, wanting to know more.

"He has agreed to let you do whatever it takes," Narcissa said, nodding.

"Good," Hermione said, smiling. "I'm so glad you chose to let me help you. I have some ideas of what we can do."

"I'm going to miss that," Draco said as Hermione came around the other side of the bed.

"What?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Your smile. If you fix my soul, I'll never see that smile again," he said with heartbreaking honesty.

"Of course you will, why would you think that?" Hermione asked.

"We've known each other for 9 years, and it wasn't until Monday in your office, when I was a broken shell of a man, that I ever saw you smile," Draco said, "at least I never saw you smile at me."

"I'm sorry," Hermione said softly, ignoring all the alarm bells that were going off in her head, reminding her exactly why she had never smiled at him in those 9 years.

"Just don't hate me when I'm myself again?" he asked, pleading with her.

"I never hated you. Don't worry," Hermione said. She pulled a vial out of her pocket and administered it to him, saying, "I need to put you out now."

Draco's body immediately fell limp as the potion passed his lips. She would have until the potion completely metabolized to finish the spell.

"This is a multi-part spell, Mrs. Malfoy, it may take a while," she warned.

"I'll stay with my son, if that's alright," Narcissa replied, her blue eyes begging permission from Hermione's brown ones.

"Of course," Hermione responded, "but you can't touch his body during the spells."

Narcissa nodded and pulled her hand back to her lap, where her other hand was clutching a monogrammed handkerchief.

Hermione stood near the bed, calming her mind and recharging her magic by focusing on it. She hadn't done any serious spellwork in quite some time, but at one point she had been very powerful for her age. She concentrated on the incantation that Luna had given her, substituting soul for brain. She focused on it, and then spoke with an even voice, "_Revelare in anima_"

A black spot appeared over Draco's chest, and for a moment Hermione thought she was wrong about the split soul. Then she looked under the glowing black spot and found a small, white spot floating. She decided the that the black spot must be the angry and emotional part of his soul, while the white was the remains of his original soul, the one she'd seen produce a shadow of Draco's former self.

Then she went on to the second part of the incantation, which she had come up with on her own. She hoped it worked. "_Miscere…. miscere… miscere simul aeternaliter… miscere… miscere….miscere simul aeternaliter,_" she muttered, eyes closed, pouring all her available power into the combining spell.

Below her wand the two spot began to move. The dark spot condensed and the white spot spread, until the white surrounded black and swallowed it. All that was left was a glowing shape over Draco's chest. Hermione held the piece still for a moment, then said "_Finite_."

The white spot disappeared and Hermione stumbled, her power seriously drained from the exhausting spell. Narcissa was on her feet in a moment, and tugged a chair over and under Hermione's weakened body. She knelt next to Hermione, taking the young girl's hands in her own.

"Did it work?" Narcissa asked nervously.

"Give him this antidote," Hermione said weakly, handing Narcissa a vial, "and we will know."

Narcissa administered the antidote to the potion that kept Draco under, and a moment later, he opened his eyes.

Grey eyes surveyed the scene of his mother holding Hermione Granger's hands, and both of their distraught faces scanning his.

"Sup, mudblood?" Draco said with a cocky smirk.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yep, he's back."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: If you would have told me last week that I would write this story, and it would fit perfectly into 10 chapters, I would have never believed you. But now that I look back, it really seems like this story wrote itself the whole time. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Honestly it was nice to write something that didn't take 7 years of my life like the last one! I never thought I'd write a story in 4 days though, so I guess I have to thank **_**Black Rose Blue**_** again for the prompt. Very nice! **

**Anyway, here's the epilogue, so enjoy!**

xxx

Six months had passed since Hermione restored Draco Malfoy's soul. The procedure went well, and Draco had no lingering side effects of the soul splintering, though he shied away from alcohol for quite some time afterwards.

Hermione got him through therapy in record time, and he was actually released a month early from the program since his progress "exceeded expectations." In the five months they worked together, Draco came to see Hermione 2 days a week at first, but as he got more accustomed to her, they ended up meeting 3 and sometimes 4 times a week. Hermione didn't mind since he was her only assignment at the time, and Draco wanted to spend time with her since she was currently his only friend.

Draco could still be an ass at times, but he learned to toe the line between snarky and just plain mean. As the time went by, Hermione got used to his arrogance and his bad jokes alike. As they worked on his prejudices, she found that it had a basis in his father's doctrine, rather than in some deep seated hatred he held. It was pretty easy to get him to be kind to muggleborns and halfbloods in public, especially once she started showing him the genetic markers related to inbreeding.

Hermione kept her promise to smile more, and Draco came to adore that smile. The second thing out of his mouth when he woke up after his soul was restored was, "I was right, Granger, you grew up." She had become a woman in the time he was in Azkaban, and without his father's oppression he was free to appreciate her beauty. Though part of him wanted the perfect pureblood bride he'd always been promised, there was another smaller part that said he knew he'd be happier with someone like Granger.

Draco, with the help of Hermione and his inheritance from his father, ended up starting his potion company in those five months. He bought out a space in Diagon Alley within walking distance of both his apartment and Hermione's office. Before the doors had opened, he had contracts pending with the Ministry of Magic, and even with two of the three magical schools in Europe (Hogwarts and Beauxbatons). He was set to succeed, and he couldn't thank anyone more than Hermione.

The grand opening was set for one month after his counseling ended, but he and Hermione had kept in touch. She would go for a run in the morning before breakfast, and he would say hello as he picked up the daily prophet in front of his door. She would often owl him to do lunch, but they never went on anything that could be considered a date. At the end of most nights, she'd knock on the door and he'd let her in to have a chat over a cup of tea. She loved to hear about his plans, and what he had brewed that day, and what new ingredients were on the way from some far-off venue.

One night over tea, he was chatting away about some Indian leaf that could cure the common cold without the use of a pepperup potion, when she suddenly said, 'We should go to India sometime."

"What?" Hermione asked, with a laugh.

"I'm serious. We should go to India," he said, nodding excitedly.

"I don't get paid enough to go to Scotland, let alone India," Hermione scoffed, taking a sip of her tea.

"I would pay. It doesn't matter to me. I just think you would love it there. It's so exotic and beautiful," he replied.

"I couldn't let you do that, Draco," she said softly. "Friends don't just take friends across the continent for free," she explained.

"What if I don't want to just be your friend," Draco said softly, taking her hand in his.

Hermione was floored. She didn't really know what to say, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Hermione, you saved my life. You pulled me from the gutter when I thought there was nowhere else to go. You gave my life meaning and hope and you taught me what joy was really like. I owe my entire being to you, and it makes me ache to think of being apart from you. I really care about you, and I think in time you could care for me too."

"I care for you already, Draco. I can't say I haven't thought about it, but for the last five months, I've been your counselor. It's been professionally immoral for anything to happen between us, so I just assumed nothing ever would. Not to mention my... blood status."

"Are you kidding?" Draco exclaimed, grabbing her other hand as well and holding them both. "None of that matters to me anymore. I don't care who your parents are, even though I'd like to meet them, don't get me wrong. I don't care who we were five months ago or the years before that at Hogwarts.

"All I care about is you and my company, and honestly between those two, you would come first. Please just give me a chance. Come away with me to India. If at the end of the trip you don't want to be with me, we'll drop it and stay friends. But I won't skip over this chance with you. I know we need to try."

Hermione thought about his words, and tried to organize her thoughts.

"You'd look even more beautiful than normal in a sari," he teased, tickling her upper thigh.

"Okay, I'll go," Hermione consented with a smile. "But I demand we go to some educational locations while we're there."

"Of course," Draco placated, leaning in to kiss her forehead. "Anything you want," he kissed her cheek, and then laced a trail of kisses along her chin line. He pulled her chin towards him with two fingers, saying, "As long as you're with me, I'm sure we'll have a great time," and then he kissed her soft lips, relishing in their taste.

It was their first kiss of many, and over the next two weeks, they shared kisses in front of the Taj Mahal, on a beach in Goa, in the shadows of the Himalayas in Kashmir, everywhere they got the chance. The most beautiful kiss they shared was in Kanyakumari, where they watched the sunset and the moonrise at the same time. It was there, that Hermione agreed to date him. He had won her over with his romance and his spirit. She guessed he won her over with his soul as well.


End file.
